Nokia Lumina 925

So I am an iPhone user. I have had 3gs and currently have a 4. I suppose deep down, when Apple went to war with Samsung, I thought Apple had turned in to a bully! So when my iPhone started playing up, I decided to drop Apple and look elsewhere. That really left 3, Android, BlackBerry or Windows Mobile.

What I don’t like about Android is the open nature of the apps. Yes as an OS it’s looks great and has some awesome devices, but no. BlackBerry, well no thanks ;-). I suppose I was always going to get a Windows Mobile device. I have had many in the past, so It was just a matter of time. I thought about and Lumina 920, but then got a hint that something new was in the pipeline so held off. The 925 is what is new!

As it goes, it was also time for to switch mobile provider. I have been with T-Mobile in the UK for ages, and for the last few months the signal has been pants. I look around at price plans and EE is soooo expensive. All I want is unlimited data, and a bit of calls and text. I am looking at the EE website now, and to get say 1GB a month will set you back £41!.. So I settled for 3. For £34 a month, I get a FREE Nokia Lumia 925, as much data as I want and more calls & texts than I could ever use. You know what is funny, when I called T-Mobile to asked for a PAC code, all of a sudden the prices of phones and contracts fell through the floor, but that doesn’t fix the issue of bad signal!

Lets get started ..

… with the boring stuff shall we. I was disappointed the phone didn’t come fully charged, so had to wait for a full charge.

Phat Farm was interesting, it is actually 1g lighter than my iPhone 4 .. but a lot bigger!

<- 70.6mm ->

<- 8.5 mm ->

Height: 129 mm Width: 70.6 mm Thickness2: 8.5 mm Weight: 139 g

The display is lovely. It’s 768×1280 and the glass just wraps in to the case. When it comes to phone screens I am a nightmare. I nearly always put a phone in my pocket with change or keys. The glass on the 925 is Corning Gorilla Glass 2, but I don’t trust myself, so will look out for a Zagg invisibleshield.

One problem I have found is that the device is nice in the hand, but slippery. A number of times I have almost dropped it. I find that the top of my hand sits well below the back camera, and that seems to be good for me.

It has a Dual-core 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon™ S4 processor (whatever that means), all that matters to me is that it performs really quite nicely. I have not noticed any lag when switching apps or downloading.

It comes with 32GB of storage and no micro-SD slot, but to be honest, I am going to use it play music or watch video, I have a Microsoft Surface RT for that. It funny, years ago I wanted just one device to do everything. This meant not getting the best device, but a middle of the road one. These days, I just want a device to do what is says on the box, and get what I think is best for me. Yeah I know I could put loads of music or videos on my 925, but I want to save the battery. There is nothing worse than wanting to make a phone or check something on the web, and you device only has 10% battery. I just hate that!

My 925 is running Windows Phone 8.0 [8.0.10327.77] with the Lumia Amber software, and it was made in Hungary.

I borrowed these off the Nokia website. Basically 4 buttons on the side with headphone and micro-USB on the top.

FRONT

1 – Micro-SIM holder

2 – Micro-USB connector

3 – Connector for headphones and loudspeakers (3.5 mm)

4 – Front camera

5 – Proximity/Light sensor

6 – Volume keys

7 – Power/Lock key

8 – Camera key

9 – Back key

10 – Start key

11 – Search key

12 – Microphone

13 – Earpiece

BACK

14 – Camera flash

15 – Back camera

16 – Wireless charging connectors

17 – Loudspeaker

It also has a couple of other things of interest. On the each corner there is what look looked like an LED. Not sure what they are for.

Apps

So this is probably the most disappointing thing about the phone. Yeah I know Microsoft is trying to get people to write Apps, but there is no comparison to the Apple, or Google app stores. Why can’t Microsoft just make it so?! They are a software company. Find the most popular apps and just port them to Windows Phone?

The killer for me is no official Starbuck Apps (come on Starbucks you started just a stones throw from Microsoft in Seattle, fly the Seattle flag and bring us an app! pleeeeeeeeeease!) but I did find one that let me “scan with phone”. The app store is searchable which is good and easy to navigate.

Icons on the start screen have 3 sizes.

Not apps have “Live Tiles” which is a shame. Flick to the left and get the app list. To start with this is just a list of the apps. When you reach some kind of threshold, it changes to an ordered list. What is cool is that you can tap say A and a new list appear. Tap on a letter and then is goes to apps. If you pin an app to the start screen, it’s one tap to load. If you don’t, it’s one swipe and 3 taps away. Once you get used to it, it’s really fast. On an iPhone it’s find the container, tap to expand it and tap to open the app. I always had trouble with the small icons on the iPhone and the 925 with Windows Phone 8 make it nice and easy!

Battery Life

I suppose battery life is a common problem with any phone. it has a 2000 mAh battery which is quite quick to charge. So far so good, it lasts more than a day, and I have seen that with WiFi off it last longer.

So what do I think?

The device is great, and I think a lot of people are saying the same. I compared it to Matt’s Lumina 920 and was surprised at how much smarter the 925 is. Not only thinner, bit it looks good.

What isn’t great are the Apps! Microsoft has a very long way to catch up with Apple and Google, which does make me hang my head in shame, as Microsoft used to be a big player in the mobile phone arena with Windows Mobile.

I am still getting used to the new OS, but so far it easy to use. What is quite nice is that the device gives you hints and tips when you do things. For example, to delete email in the mail app, I was pressing and holding on the message and a dialog would allow me to delete. It suggested you tap to the left of the message to select and delete!

I have not had any kind of serious play with an Android, so can’t comment, but if your not an App monster, I would take the Nokia Lumina 925 over any iPhone. It looks nice, feels nice and is more than fast enough for what I need.

An FYI. If you want a new phone and you are out of contract, the just threaten to leave! Most mobile providers will bend over backwards to keep you! Also remember that reception is key. You may get 2000 minutes of calls and unlimited data, but that is useless if you have no signal!